POLITICO Brexit Files: Home stretch — Defending the EU — Corbyn’s first week in power

— Today marks the traditional final dash around the country for party leaders ahead of polling day. The Tories are calling on voters to let Theresa May “battle for Britain” in the Brexit negotiations. Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn is focusing on domestic issues, saying there are “24 hours to save the NHS.” The Liberal Democrats are targeting Remain-voting seats while UKIP says it is the only party that can stop Brexit “backsliding.”

— Here are 16 must-reads on the election, covering everything from terrorism to polling to May’s campaign war room.

— The Scottish National Party is feeling the pressure because of Brexit and its own success, writes Peter Geoghegan. The SNP’s dominance — it has all but three seats in Scotland — and its staunchly pro-EU stance have made it a target for other parties ahead of the election.

**POLITICO and Pagefield invite you to The Morning After — General Election Results breakfast. Join us to enjoy some strong coffee, bacon sandwiches and a range of insights and opinions from Tom McTague, POLITICO’s chief U.K. political correspondent; Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail; Viki Cooke, founding partner of BritainThinks; Ayesha Hazarika, columnist and political commentator; and Mark Gallagher from Pagefield, at 8:45 a.m., June 9, in Westminster. For more details and to RSVP click here.**

INSIGHT

It’s been an article of faith for decades that the U.K. opposes any form of EU defense cooperation. Regular headlines in many anti-Brexit tabloids before last year’s referendum accused the European Commission of hatching plans to create an EU army, something regularly rebuffed by frustrated officials in Brussels.

How times have changed.

On Wednesday, the Commission launched an unprecedented initiative to boost the EU’s defense industry by offering billions of euros to companies working on the development of military technology. The hope, according to Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European commissioner for industry, is to encourage the highly fragmented defense sector to consolidate “in the next ten years.”

She described her surprise at how London’s opposition to the initiative had vanished since the Brexit referendum, and even turned into support. “Once or twice the British minister took the floor to support it, I think last time they were just mute, silent, but without any opposition to the proposals,” she said in an interview.

On other EU military initiatives London has been a reluctant partner. For months, it opposed moves to consider a new military unit that will be responsible for EU training missions in Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic — the Military Planning and Conduct Capabilities (MPCC) — as an EU military HQ. London has also been a historical opponent of anything resembling an EU army.

In a speech last May, then Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Suggestions of an EU army are fanciful: national security is a national competence, and we would veto any suggestion of an EU army.”

A possible reason for this policy U-turn? Money. For a company to be able to benefit from the new Defense Fund, the project in question must be based in at least two EU countries with at least three participants.

“Actions funded under the programme shall not be located on the territory of non-member states during the entire duration of the action,” reads the draft law that must be signed off by both MEPs and EU governments before it comes into force.

The U.K.’s defense industry, which includes giants like BAE Systems as well as companies like missile manufacturer MBDA, formed as joint ventures between European firms, were involved in drafting a set of proposals, most of which the Commission accepted.

When asked what this meant for post-Brexit Britain, Bieńkowska said: “Now they are in, and they support it.” But she noted that U.K. participation in the new initiative would be “one of the series of difficult topics to be discussed” during the Brexit negotiations.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is no stranger to the topic of European defense. In 2015, as special adviser to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on defense and security policy, Barnier made clear his vision of a European defense policy. “If Europe is to live up to tomorrow’s security challenges, the EU’s soft power must be matched by collective hard power,” he said.

— Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale accused SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon of lying about whether Labour supports a second Scottish independence referendum. Sturgeon told an election TV program that Dugdale told her “she didn’t think Labour could go on opposing a second referendum” after the Brexit vote, in which a majority of Scots voted to remain in the European Union. Dugdale said Sturgeon’s claims were “absolute nonsense.”

— Whatever happened to the Lib Dems’ surge with Remainers?Here’s leader Tim Farron’s rueful reflection: “What I hear a lot is a very British phrase: ‘Better make the best of it.’ It was such an acrimonious debate, I totally understand why people don’t want to go there.”

— Is political party affiliation related to Britons’ shopping habits? Yes, according to Kantor Worldpanel, a consumer-insights company. It says 24 percent of British shoppers are concerned their grocery bills will rise after Brexit, with Scottish National Party supporters the most concerned, followed by Green and Labour voters. Conservative voters are among the least concerned.

— The British Beer & Pub Association (more or less) said it wants to retain all the benefits of staying in the EU, without any downsides. It wants an EU trade deal “with no tariffs or additional paperwork” as well as a generous immigration system that would allow it to meet labor needs. And a packet of pork scratchings.

— The head of the chartered accountants trade group ICAEW will today call on whoever wins the election to make sure Whitehall is fit for purpose and that it is equipped with the right skills to tackle the growing deficit and manage the complexity of Brexit.

— The British pharmaceutical sector criticized a decision by the European Medicines Agency to exclude U.K. experts from a meeting on how to manage Brexit. The EMA said the exclusion was made on grounds of public health.

— A forced relocation of euro-denominated derivatives would “fragment markets, raise costs for end users and weaken the stability of the financial system,” according to FIA, an industry association representing the cleared derivatives industry. It has written to the European Commission outlining its concerns.

— What would happen the morning after Jeremy Corbyn wins the election? It would be a shock but (much) stranger things have happened. Rosa Prince writes a slice of political fiction.

— If Corbyn does win, he’d invite Angela Merkel to watch his beloved Arsenal during the Brexit negotiations and praise the way the Germans run football clubs.